Opening statements began Monday in the trial of three men accused of shooting to death a Northeast Portland man, with jurors listening to a heart-wrenching 9-1-1 recording of the last 12 minutes of the dying man’s life.

Nicollette Nettles -- the life partner of Kenny Ray Henry Jr. -- called 9-1-1 seconds after she dragged Henry’s bullet-ridden body back into the home they shared with their young children.

As a dispatcher instructs Nettles to look for bullet holes, Henry can be heard moaning and gasping for air before he expires.

“He’s been shot!” Nettles says. “... he’s making a very, very strange noise like he’s trying so hard to breathe.”

Jurors did not get to hear the entire recording, as defense attorney John Gutbezahl objected to a few people in the courtroom gallery who were crying loudly. The recording will be made available to jurors in the jury room.

The dramatic recording highlighted what is expected to be two weeks of intense testimony and argument into the May 9, 2012, death of the 29-year-old father. The three defendants -- Xabian Robert Riley, 25, Marcellus Allen, 23, and Tracey Christopher Lomax, 26 -- are all fighting charges of murder. They contend the evidence is circumstantial and that key prosecution witnesses are unreliable because they’ve changed their stories.

Prosecutors believe the defendants -- at least two of whom had gang ties -- targeted Henry because of his involvement in the drug world. Henry had served in the U.S. military in Iraq, and was a full-time student at Portland Community College. He supported his family by growing and selling marijuana -- sometimes pounds at a time. Most of it was to medical marijuana patients, but a few customers were not, his partner testified.

Henry had a child from a previous relationship, Henry and Nettles had two children together. Henry, however, never learned he was about to be the father of a second child with Nettles. She learned she was pregnant on the day of his funeral.

On the night of the shooting, a man showed up at the couple's home in the 14800 block of Northeast Fremont Court. Henry stepped outside the front door to talk to the man, and an instant later he was shot nine or 10 times.

Portland police officers who were training with their dog at an apartment complex about half a mile away, in the 15200 block of Northeast Sandy Boulevard, heard the gunshots about 11:38 p.m. Minutes later, the officers saw three men in a Buick Regal drive into the complex's parking lot with its headlights off. The officers approached the car with flashlights, and the three men ran.

Using their police dog, officers found the three defendants hiding in a friend’s apartment at the Sandy Boulevard complex.

Police also found a .22-caliber revolver under a mattress in the bedroom, and a 9mm handgun and a .380-caliber handgun inside a closet.

Casings from all three types of guns were found at the scene of the shooting.

“This is a trial about three guns, three shooters and three separate types of bullets that killed Kenny Ray Henry Jr.,” said prosecutor Chris Mascal, during opening statements.

Inside the home, police also found a Pine-Sol soaked shirt and hoody that they believe belong to two of the defendants.

Investigators tested the .22 revolver and found DNA they believe belongs to Lomax. They also believe DNA from a holster on the floor belongs to Riley.

But defense attorneys for the three defendants criticized the prosecution’s case as weak.

“The state can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that (Riley) had a gun in his hand,” said Ernest Warren, Riley’s attorney. “There’s no DNA. ... There’s no fingerprints. ... There are no eye witnesses. … So that makes the case a circumstantial-evidence case.”